Duwamish

The Duwamish reigned as one of the most powerful fireboats in the United States several times over her 75-year working life. She is the second oldest vessel designed to fight fires in the USA, after the Edward M Cotter, in Buffalo, New York. She was built in 1909 in Seattle for the Seattle Fire Department in Richmond Beach, Washington. She was powered by "double vertical (compound) marine steam engines" capable of driving her at 10.5 knots (19.4 km/h). She was equipped with three American LaFrance steam piston pumps rated at a capacity of 3,000 US gallons per minute (0.189 m/s) each. She was originally designed to ram and sink burning wooden vessels, as a last resort, and was equipped with a ram bow for doing so. On July 30, 1914,...